Appropriation of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya 9
ethics of the raising of children.^25 This very slow-beginning and still-
scattered perception of Ibn al-Qayyim as an author in his own right
hardly reminds one of Ibn Taymiyya, and the profile that emerges is
very different. However, some topics are associated with both authors
simultaneously, such as legal methodology – as tentatively analysed
by Kerr^26 – and, of course, the complex field of the veneration of saints
and visitation of graves,^27 which persistently haunts people around the
globe and fuels the perception of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim as
notorious troublemakers.
In conclusion for the century under discussion, the writings of
Bell, Bummel and Perho in particular can be qualified as profound
and as effectively preparing the ground for later research. Bummel,
for instance, enhanced the analysis of the emerging importance of
Ibn al-Qayyim in the field of bioethics.^28 Despite this, the extremely
low number of contributions on Ibn al-Qayyim in Western languages
throughout the 20th century^29 stands in stark contrast to the multiple
25 Adamek, Gerhard: Das Kleinkind in Glaube und Sitte der Araber im Mittel-
alter, Ph. D. thesis, Bonn (Universität Bonn) 1968; Giladi, Avner: Children of
Islam. Concepts of Childhood in Medieval Muslim Society, New York 1968,
pp. 10–34 et passim; idem: Gender Differences on Child Rearing and Education.
Some Preliminary Observations with Reference to Medieval Muslim Thought,
in: al-Qantara 16 (1995), pp. 291–301, here pp. 295–299, 301, and idem: Some
Notes on Taḥnīq in Medieval Islam, in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 47
(1988), pp. 175–179, here pp. 175, 177–178.
26 Kerr, Malcolm H.: Islamic Reform. The Political and Legal Theories of Muham-
mad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida. Berkeley and Los Angeles 1966, pp. 68, 77–79,
88–89, 99–100, 191–196. Compare Al-Matroudi, Abdul Hakim: The Ḥanbalī
School of Law and Ibn Taymiyyah. Conflict or Conciliation, London and New
York 2006, pp. 132–136.
27 Taylor, Christopher S.: In the Vicinity of the Righteous. Ziyāra and the Ven-
eration of Muslim Saints in Late Medieval Egypt, Leiden 1999, chapters 5–6,
pp. 168–218.
28 The strategic use of Ibn al-Qayyim’s writings enabled Saudi Arabian scholars,
and scholars from other countries, to expand the period before the ensoulment
of the embryo to up to 120 days in their debates about abortion. On this link-
age, see Eich, Thomas: Die Diskussion islamischer Rechtsgelehrter um pre-ma-
rital screening und die Abtreibung behinderter Embryonen, in: Thomas Eich
and Thomas Sören Hoffmann (eds.): Kulturübergreifende Bioethik. Zwischen
globaler Herausforderung und regionaler Perspektive, Freiburg and Munich
2006, pp. 152–178, here pp. 163, 166–170, 174.
29 Bori and Holtzman, writing as late as 2011, comment on the situation as follows:
“Yet, a student of Ibn al-Qayyim embarking upon research on the thought of
Ibn Qayyim al-Ǧawziyyah will eventually start with a meagre handful of stud-
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